Progressive Conversion
October 28, 2007
Acts9:1-22
Since the day that I’ve arrived we’ve been working on a five year plan. We are on the cusp of our fifth year. We’ve gotten out of the Odd Fellow’s Lodge. We passed our first 10, 20, 30, 50, 60 and today 80th members. We have a building of our own for worship and programming. We have a vision that is relevant and meaningful: To work with the Sacred Story and find the bridges between our own character roles in that Story and God’s ways of uniting us through our personal journeys. We capture that ancient, sacred story in the contemporary story telling methods of today: digital media, contemporary music, and being real. It has been a lot of work. It has been a lot of work. It has been a lot of work for me. And, now we are experiencing a Dramatic Interruption.
I’ve got mono. Mononeucleosis. It’s bad. And, my Doctor told me Friday I’m going to be like this until January…and if I don’t do what she says, it’s going to be longer. You can’t do anything much except sleep. You have moments where you think you might be able to do something and end up sweating and dizzy and like you just finished a triatholon. Grocery shopping, bathing your kids, cleaning the house, cooking dinner all insurmountable tasks at times. Even holding my baby Gabrielle at moments feels dangerous and scary. I’m used to working 75-80 hours a week, answering phone calls the day they come in, meeting you whenever, however, you asked. It’s helped us to get here, I admit, but now we’re at a Dramatic Interruption. I literally can’t do it anymore and in fact, it’s killing me.
What I’ve found out, like Saul, is that I thought I had to hold on to God. I thought that I had to be everywhere because God called me to this work. But, in the last six weeks, it has become very clear we are having a dramatic interruption of that plan. Because it’s not all about me. In fact there is a power, a reality, a mystery, a mercy and a grace outside and beyond me. And that power, that reality, that mystery doesn’t need me to work. God works beyond and above and even without Briget Nicholson. It’s been a hard six weeks coming to grips with that. But, what I’ve realized is that I’ve hurt us in some pretty bad ways by not helping you to develop more along the way. Letting you try your wings more and fly or fail a bit. This journey we are on is one of faith. Not faith in me. Not my faith in you. It’s our faith in God. This blinding, transforming God who is prone to Dramatic Interuptions.
Isn’t this Good News? I know, not so much yet. The good news is that God is working in our community. The Good News is that God is calling this community to form it’s apostles and disciples. And, this God, who calls us, that’s why we’re here. This God who knows us by name. Maybe this story isn’t for you, this story of Saul. That’s why we had the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunich last week. That’s why we have another conversion story next week. There are many ways that we can meet God. And, when we meet God it transforms us and pushes us to talk about our experience.
Saul was a murderer. Saul was killing people of The Way. But, God loved Saul, and called Saul and it transformed him. God forgave Saul and even found a way to use him on The Way. If that can happen out there on any average road, I know that it can happen here. This seems to be the transition between my journey and ours. And, it seems we have just the people we need to start this revolution. Because I am forced to back off and pray. I do believe God is in our midst, helping the scales to fall from our ways, redirecting us transforming us through mercy, grace, peace. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next. God’s calling you…we all can’t wait to hear your story. Because your story is one piece of this community of faith. And your story is going to unite you to another person in this community. Together, together we will have another five year plan. I have more faith than ever.